Zack Galifinakis Plays ‘A Game of Game of Thrones’ on SNL

By Matt Staggs on May 6, 2013

Did you catch Saturday Night Live this weekend? Special guest Zack Galifinakis played an over-the-top George R.R. Martin fan competing in a quiz show called “A Game of Game of Thrones”. Galifinakis’ dragon costume and awkward, poorly-timed attempts at humor rub host “OJ Samson” (Bill Hader) the wrong way, turning what should be a home-run for any fan into an exercise in public humiliation. While I didn’t see it when it ran (I go to sleep pretty early these days, sad to say), it is available online.

Sometimes fans can get a little prickly about less-than-favorable depictions in the media of them and their pastimes. It’s understandable, in a way: You don’t want to be told that you’re a “weirdo” by the idiot box. I see it in a more positive light, though. You can tell that fan culture has arrived when your average television viewer knows enough about George R.R. Martin’s stuff that humor writers don’t have to worry about whether they’ll be in on the joke. Dragons, superheroes, science fiction, zombies – it’s all in the mix now, and there’s nothing that Joe and Jane Sixpack to do about it.